I soon realized there are things you don’t think about until you’re actually missing them.

Let me start by telling you about my cats. I expected to miss them, but definitely not this much. They’re friends you take for granted, and then they suddenly aren’t there. You then find yourself creeping down a street trying to catch a stray cat for a cuddle. You then think: “Shit! I miss my cats.”

I think it will go like this when I get back: “Hey mom. Hey dad. I’m going to be busy petting my cat for several hours now.”

It doesn’t even end there.

Growing up in Calgary, I’ve gotten to know my way around town and could probably drive around with my eyes closed. Wait, I’m lying. I truthfully have no sense of direction and am constantly getting lost.

Being in a new city has only made the confusion worse. I get mixed-up just walking around campus. One of my first days in New Mexico, my roommate and I got lost and wandered for hours under the sun. On the bright side, it was the first time I’ve looked tanned since high school graduation.

Subsequently I had to get to know public transit. ABQ only has buses. No C-Trains. Many people agree that figuring out the bus routes here is more confusing than trigonometry. Wait, am I actually longing for Calgary Transit? Really? Things I never expected to miss.

Did you know that the States don’t have dill pickle chips? I definitely did not. Had I known, I would’ve seriously reconsidered coming here. Kidding. There are certain things I expected to be the same cross-borders, iced tea being one of them. Good luck finding tea that isn’t just literally iced.

There are distinctly “American” things I was looking forward to as well. I was informed to my disappointment that White Castle is an “East-Coast” thing.

Oh wow how I miss being legal. Being at a party and preparing to sprint into the night in case the “party patrol” shows up is just too reminiscent of high school for my taste.

I realize these things seem arbitrary, and I’m really not trying to come off whiny. Bumbling around a city is truly a great way to get to know it and is way better than not leaving home because you don’t know your way around.

Cherry and vanilla coke, cake-flavoured vodka, and $0.75 beer on Thursdays make not having dill pickle chips and iced tea totally worth it, and my obsession with cats is probably a bit pathetic anyway. Surely when I’m back home drinking $7 regular coke and vodkas or still being lost in my own city when it’s -30 C outside then I’ll be dreaming of Albuquerque.

Read how memory in testimonies have been questioned and criticized in the past, and the psychological explanation behind it all in the third and final article of our Aftermath series ... See MoreSee Less